The Greater Sudbury Cubs showed a marked improvement in play between games one and two of the 2024 Centennial Cup in Oakville - but in this type of short tournament, the NOJHL champs might just be short of runway.

Pretty much everything went wrong in their opening encounter as the Collingwood Blues scored on their first shot of the game just 38 seconds in and never took their foot off the gas, trouncing the Cubs 10-2.

Calum Chau paced the Blues attack with a hat trick, joined on the scoresheet by a bevy of teammates: Jack Rimmer, Ethan Facchina, Spencer Young, Jack Silverman, Damen Boose, Landon Wright, Dylan Hudon.

Hudson Chitaroni scored in the first, cutting the Collingwood lead to 2-1 at the time, but a power play goal by Marshall McCharles late in period two only served to make the score slightly more respectable.

Come Sunday afternoon, the Cubs were in a game, falling 5-1 to the Navan Grads as the CJHL reps pulled away in the third, doubling their 2-1 lead at 11:15 courtesy of Matthew Roy and adding a pair of empty-net markers late.

Colin MacDougall, Maximus Crete, Nicholas Paone and Sudbury native Devon Savignac also scored for the Grads with McCharles netting his second goal in as many games for the Cubs.

Sudbury will now have to win out in order to have any hope of advancing to the playoff round, battling the Calgary Canucks (1-1) on Monday at 4:00 p.m. and closing out pool play against Collège Francais de Longueuil Wednesday at noon.